June 11, 2012

Subaru Motorsports Frenzy

Right now, we're in the middle of the motorsports year for Subaru. Subaru Road Racing Team ran in the two-and-a-half-hour GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course south of Mansfield, Ohio, on Saturday, June 9. Subaru PUMA RallyCross Team (SPRXT) took on the competition in Round 2 of the Global Rallycross Championship at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas, on the same day.

Another event for Subaru enthusiasts that took place the same weekend was Wicked Big Meet, held at Stafford Motor Speedway in Stafford Springs, Connecticut. The Drive Performance WRX was there.

Drive Performance staff members traveled to each of these events.

The full June weekend followed SPRXT's debut in Round 1 of the Global RallyCross Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina, two weekends ago on May 26. Subaru entered three cars -- for Dave Mirra, Bucky Lasek, and Sverre Isachsen. Here is the team's report on the Subaru rally site, and here is another report on the Vermont SportsCar site. Find videos on both, which give you a good idea of the explosive nature of rallycross -- elimination heats on a short course that demand tremendous power and precise control.

The first weekend of June, Subaru Rally Team USA fought a furious battle at Susquehannock Trail Rally (Wellsboro, Pennsylvania) to overcome mechanical difficulties and place 2nd. Read about it on the Vermont SportsCar site here and on the Subaru rally site here. Ride along with driver/co-driver David Higgins/Craig Drew on YouTube.

Notes from Charlotte

Attending Round 1 of the Global RallyCross Championship in Charlotte was my first visit to the Charlotte Motor Speedway. My first reaction was surprise at the activity: two NASCAR races (Nationwide and Sprint Cup), a World of Outlaws sprint car race, and rallycross. There were thousands of RVs, campers, and tents.

Plus, there were was food. Vendors were everywhere, as were people who had been camping out for days.

But what I felt early in the morning of the rallycross was the energy around the speedway. Campers were cooking or grilling by 7:00 a.m. -- sending small columns of smoke and smells into the air. From a distance, it was like the encampment pictures from the Civil War. The number of campers and RVs is staggering. They're packed into the infield and in surrounding sites.

Racer transports were lined up side by side, as they are at most tracks. Generator engines hummed and moaned, and racing engines sparked to life sporadically, even hours before track activities. I sat in a bowl formed by multicolored seats -- some in patterns and some demarking specific sections.